Growing Awareness for New Domain Names

At least 46% of users are aware of new domain names, according to a recent survey commissioned by The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

The ICANN Global Consumer Research Study, Phase One, carried out by Nielsen in February, showed that 46% of respondents were aware of at least one new generic top-level domain (gTLD) landscape and the domain name system (DNS). While 65% of those surveyed had visited a new gTLD, such as .email, .photography, .link, .guru or .realtor.

The survey also examined consumer attitudes towards established TLDs, such as .com, .net, .org and .info. Unsurprisingly, .com, .net and .org led awareness, with 79% of respondents reporting knowledge of these domains. These TLDs also had relatively high visitation, with an average of 71% of respondents reporting they had visited one of those domains.

People trust companies with domain names. Nielsen found that 72% of respondents reported high levels of trust with entities that offer domain names. Of those surveyed, 90% claimed to trust the top three legacy TLDs (.com, .net, .org). The results showed that trust among new gTLDs is lower than legacy TLDs, but growing, with 49% of people saying they trusted the sample new gTLDs provided in the survey.

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